Is Celtic’s Moussa Dembele suffering from delusion?

In the least surprising news of the day, Celtic’s Moussa Dembele has been shortlisted for player and young player of the year in the PFA Scotland awards.

The 20-year-old currently sits as the third highest scorer in the Scottish Premier League for this season, four off top scorer, and teammate, Scott Sinclair – although the Frenchman has played 618 less minutes than the former Manchester City forward.

Dembele’s nominations comes hours after the former Fulham striker revealed he believes he can become the greatest striker in the world, and can achieve that aim by remaining with Brendan Rodgers’ title winners:

“I am progressing. As I told you when I first came, I want to be one of the best strikers in the world.

“The road is still far for me to go but I feel I am getting there.

“It will come when it comes. I don’t set myself an age and keep working. I hope it will come soon but if not I’ll just keep working harder and there are many more challenges here.

“I have never said I am going to leave this club. I have a four-year contract, I have said nothing about transfers and I don’t want to speak about it. I don’t listen to what people are saying, I just focus on my football.

“It is not a case of what have Celtic done for me. It is a case of what we have done together.

Moussa Dembele

Ridicule of the SPL is never too far away from the dialect of English football fans – and Rodgers going to Scotland, and thriving, with his David Brent mannerisms, is one of the worst things for the reputation of the league.

And Dembele’s quotes will see a plethora of those horrendous ‘Footy Banter’ accounts send out their unfunny memes, mocking the former Cottager. However, is the striker, who was signed for a mere £500,000 last summer, correct?

Football fans love the cliché: “you can only beat what’s put in front of you” but of course they pick and choose on when they’re relevant – basically, if it paints your team in a negative light, then it’s not applicable. And strikers are only judged on their goals, so what’s Dembele to do?! If they were judged on more, Emile Heskey wouldn’t be seen as a figure of ridicule, but that’s for another time.

Although Dembele could remain with the Hoops, and become the best striker in the world, sadly for him, due to fragile masculinity of the English Premier League, he’ll never be offered the respect he deserves – Henrik Larsson had to prove himself to the ignorant English fans by being a success for Manchester United and Barcelona.

The truth is, this is all irrelevant, because Dembele won’t be at Celtic in two years, and his latest quotes are nothing by PR-friendly waffle.